Doing Their Bit: Wartime American Animated Short Films, 1939-1945, 2d ed.

by Michael S. Shull, David E. Wilt

The golden age of animation stretched from the early 1930s to the mid-1950s, with movie cartoons reaching an extraordinarily high level of artistry and technique--far higher than today's TV cartoons, for instance.

Nearly 1000 cartoons were produced by the seven major animation studios in the U.S. between January 1, 1939, and September 30, 1945--the immediate pre-World War II period up to the cessation of hostilities. More than a quarter of the cartoons substantially refer to the war, and thereby are invaluable in helping to understand American attitudes and Hollywood's reflection of them.

The meat of Doing Their Bit is a filmography with extremely detailed summaries of the 260 or so commercially produced, animated, war-related shorts, 1939-1945. There is also a good bit of overall commentary on these films as a group. Two chapters wrap up animated cartoons of World War I and the general political tenor of animated talkies of the 1930s. This edition also includes a new chapter on the outrageous government-sponsored Pvt Snafus.

256 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1987

Reviews

[Scott Stoeger · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting topic, but the book could have been so much better. The book needed many more pictures, especially since it is about animated shorts. The Filmography section is interesting (despite zero pictures), however, the section would have been better if the features were completely chronological. The section is chronological by year, but within each year, the features are alphabetical by title. Reference is given to other features which may or may not have come before the one you are reading about.

While the book does bring back memories of cartoons I watched growing up, the lack of pictures and the formatting are significant detractors.